Disposable diapers including hook and loop fasteners for fastening together portions of the diapers to secure them to individuals are well known in the art. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,410,327 and 4,568,342 provide illustrative examples. Also it is well known to use hook fastener portions in such fasteners that have a woven backing and a plurality of pile monofilaments with portions woven into the backing and portions projecting from a front surface of the backing that have distal end portions adapted for releasable engagement with loops included in the fasteners (e.g., by forming arcuate hook portions or mushroom shaped heads at their ends), and a layer of adhesive along a rear surface of the backing adhering the hook fastener portions in place.
Heretofore, however, such woven hook fastener portions have been made in a continuous strip by a method including a weaving step to form the woven backing with portions of the pile monofilaments woven therein, a hook forming step in which arcuate hook portions or heads are formed on the projecting portions of the pile monofilaments, an autoclave step in which the woven fasteners are exposed to steam in an autoclave to shrink the backing, a binder coating step in which a coating of a liquid binder material for adhering together the warp and weft yarns and the woven in portions of the pile monofilaments is applied to the backing, and a drying step that takes about 48 hours in which the binding material on the backing is dried and cured; after which an adhesive for adhering the backing in place may be applied along the rear surface of the backing and the strip may be slit and/or cut to provide a hook fastener portion of a desired size for its intended application. While this method has produced a very suitable hook fastener portion which can withstand being opened and closed many times and being washed as is required for many uses, the number of steps it entails, and the batch nature of many of the steps it includes adds significantly to its cost. Thus, the hook fastener portion produced by that method is very high priced compared to hook fastener portions made by other methods such as continuous molding techniques that, while not of the high quality of the woven hook fastener portions made by the method described above, are still quite adequate for use in fasteners intended for certain uses, such as on disposable garments (e.g., disposable diapers) where a limited number of engagements and disengagements of the fasteners are anticipated.